It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Mixed Company Theatre Board Member and friend, Brian Hutchison. We are proud to have had Brian as a member of MCT’s Board from 2017-2024.
Brian devoted his career to the improvement of primary health care in Canada. For more than 30 years, he was a family physician, educator, mentor, researcher and leader in family medicine and health services research at McMaster University, 11 years of which he also served as the medical and research advisor at the Hamilton-Wentworth Home Care Program/Community Care Access Centre. Brian is recognized as one of Canada’s most influential and cited researchers in primary health care, receiving many professional accolades.
Brian provided ongoing moral and material support not just to MCT, but to various other charitable and social justice organizations.
As our Board President reflects, “Brian was such an amazing individual with such a big heart and contagious smile! I truly enjoyed working with him. He will be greatly missed.” We are grateful for every way that Brian has positively impacted our company and for Brian’s friendship with our team.
One of our associate artists who knew Brian well, Rex Deverell, shares this poem which he wrote in the Fall after visiting with Brian and his partner.
“Today I posted a letter in our mailbox.
I propped it carefully
So it stood up, pristine
And stamped
Prepared with intentionality
To confront the multiplicity
Of Canada Post’s functionality.
A faded flag erect
At the side, the outside side
Of the box.
We don’t know if the mail will go
Today
Or other mail will come.
The delivery is periodically sporadic
In this part of the woods,
On Rural Route Number Four.
Then I took a walk.
I stayed on the pavement
Patched in places with an overlay
Pitched in bitumen – well, tarred anyway
If not feathered.
I tried to be conscious
Of each breath I breathed
Because that is what we do,
Or supposed to
If we want enlightenment.
And there was light,
Soft and filtered.
It touched a red and golden leaf
And made it fall
Whirling in the air.”
– Rex Deverell, October 2023
We send our heartfelt condolences to Brian’s family and loved ones.
To read Brian’s obituary and for details of his celebration of life, see here: https://globe2go.pressreader.com/article/282243785931156